Much-maligned Washburn set to make Philly return

PHILADELPHIA — From the day he arrived in Philly, Jim Washburn was an acquired taste. Salty, loud-mouthed and borderline disrespectful, he helped turn a difficult 2012 Eagles season into a living nightmare.

You knew Washburn was one of a kind when he shoved Eagles coaching colleague Marty Mornhinweg during a sideline shouting match two years ago while their team was getting buried by the New England Patriots and survived to work another year. It wasn’t Mornhinweg’s idea to bring “Wash” back.

Washburn, however, didn’t make it through the 2012 season. Neither did defensive coordinator Juan Castillo. Oh, and head coach Andy Reid was fired the day the season ended.

None of them figured out the best way to infuse Washburn’s cutting-edge Wide 9 alignment, which stretched defensive linemen clear across the field and created lanes to rush the passer with the conventional wisdom that defense starts with stopping the run.

Washburn’s alignment left holes in the run defense large enough to drive the Queen Mary through.

This week marks the first anniversary of Washburn’s firing.

Fittingly, Washburn makes his return, along with the Wide 9, as a coach with the Detroit Lions. They get together with the Eagles Sunday at Lincoln Financial Field. You can be reasonably sure Reid, Castillo and Mornhinweg all are going to check the box score.

Through it all, Eagles linebacker Trent Cole stands by his old coach.

“It was just an overall bad season, you know?” Cole said. “It takes a team to win. You can’t just blame him. If you’re going to blame anybody you blame everybody. I hear what some people would say about him, but one thing about him is he loves the game. He wants to get after it and he wants to be successful.”

The 64-year-old Washburn is getting it done with the Lions (7-5) just as he did with the Tennessee Titans. Lions head coach Jim Schwartz was on the Titans staff with Washburn.

“I worked with him for a decade in Tennessee,” Schwartz said on a conference call. “We had a lot of success together. He’s been able to develop players even though we’ve had a hard time re-signing guys. We’d have some cap issues, we’d draft guys, they’d develop and it was on to the next team. It was almost a college-type system because you didn’t have many guys for more than four years. He is unequivocally one of the best position coaches in the NFL and we’re really glad to have him here. He’s made a difference on our staff, not just with our run defense but also with our pass rush. We’re starting to go.”

Beyond all-world receiver Calvin Johnson, who leads the league in receiving yardage and touchdown grabs, the strength of the Lions is the defensive line.

Ndamukong Suh (6-4, 305) and Nick Fairley (6-4, 291) together are one of the more imposing pairs of tackles in the league.

Ends Willie Young (6-5, 251) and Ziggy Ansah (6-5, 270), the first-round pick out of BYU, of all places, are a perfect fit for Washburn’s scheme. Rookie Devin Taylor (6-7, 267) rotates in.

“We had some injuries, but you see a guy like Ziggy Ansah, he missed a couple games but he’s sitting with seven sacks,” Schwartz said. “Now we’re working together and I like where we’re going defensive line-wise and Jim Washburn is a big part of that.”

The Lions have a reputation for edgy play. Suh is one of the most reviled players in the NFL. The Eagles’ offensive linemen have a choice to make: Do they want to win the fights or the game?

“That’s not a concern,” Eagles head coach Chip Kelly said. “Our concern and the reputation I know about those guys is that they are outstanding football players and they play extremely hard, and you’d better buckle it up and get ready every play against those guys.”

Cole leads the Eagles with five sacks. He’s coming off a game with two sacks along with Brandon Graham, who also loved to go to war with Washburn.

“It’s going to be good to see him,” Graham said. “If anything, last year, towards the end I always heard his voice when I was getting my sacks, so I definitely look at him as somebody who motivated me a little more to go out there and do what I had to do toward the end.”

The Eagles’ offensive linemen would be wise to heed the general alarm Cole and Graham are sending out. They know Washburn real well. And they know how badly he wants to beat the Eagles.

“Oh yeah, this is a big game for him,” Graham said. “He probably marked that down on his calendar when he first found out. So you know it’s going to be fun. I definitely can say that we miss him just as a friend. But we’ve got to go out there and do our thing and come out with the win.”

“He’s tough, he loves the game of football, he loves to get after it and he wants to win,” Cole added. “They’re probably going to have their rat poison and we’ll have our rat poison, too.”